Rumours of Dainese being up for sale is circulating again.
The premier Italian brand is currently held by InvestCorp, and investment group from Bahrain. They are holding a controlling stake in Dainese S.p.A. and are looking to sell their shares, according to rumours.
It was also said that Investcorp have enlisted the assistance of asset management company Lazard. In turn, Lazard will begin looking for buyers of Investcorp’s 80% shares in Dainese.
Whether true or otherwise, time is ripe for Investcorp to cash in on their shares. The group has taken the brand to newer heights and higher profits since their takeover in 2014.
Prior to Investcorp’s involvement, Dainese’s turnover was € 117 million in 2013. It grew € 187.4 million in 2017, allaying initial fears of the brand being ruined by profit hunters. Employees increased from 609 to 757 in March 2018, too. The company earned € 30 million (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) in 2018 alone and is expected to grow to € 35 million by the end of this year.
Consequently, the company could be evaluated at nearly half-a-billion Euros.
Founder Lino Dainese holds the remaining shares and continues to be the President, while Cristiano Silei took over as CEO from 2015.
Since then, Lino Dainese founded the D Airlab, dedicated to research on applying D-Air technology not only to motorcycle riders, but in other applications such as aerospace, worker safety, sailing and the elderly.
Dainese also continues to work with the Trauma Team at the Niguarda Ca’Granda Hospital in Milan as part of the Dainese Advanced Research Program. The program analyses the effects of motorcycle accidents in order to improve the design of protective gear.
Alpinestars (A-Star) published their response to the recent German court decision with regards to a patent infringement case involving fellow Italian gear maker Dainese.
The decision by the Munich Court of Appeals will cause a huge effect to A-Stars’ Tech-Air airbag vests in the German market. In siding with Dainese, the court has issued an injunction against selling the product in the country. In addition to having their products pulled from the shelves, A-Stars also need to pay a huge sum in damages.
A-Stars is challenging Dainese’s charge that the they infringed on the latter’s patents. Judging from the wordings and language in the Press Release, the fight is not over. It’s going to be the Clash of Italian Titans.
The focal point of the contention is how the airbag vest is held in a garment.
On February 7, 2019 the Higher Regional Court of Munich issued judgment upholding the claim that Alpinestars’ Tech-Air® vest infringes upon patent EP 2 412 257 B1 held by Dainese S.p.A.
Alpinestars wants to clarify that this action never involved the core of Alpinestars Tech-Air® technology; at no point, either past or present, has any action or patent infringement involved the electronic management, algorithm, or deployment mechanism, or any other part employed within Alpinestars entirely unique and advanced Tech-Air® technology.
Furthermore this judgment is limited to the territory of Germany only. It has no bearing on any other territories within Europe or the wider world market where Tech-Air® is available throughout Alpinestars’ Dealer network.
Originally Dainese alleged infringements based on three patents in Germany, none of them refer to Tech-Air® technology: one complaint was withdrawn by Dainese on 22nd December 2016, relating to patent EP 2 373 188, after this patent was revoked by the European Patent Office. The remaining two patents have been contested in Germany. The second, EP 2 373 190, concerning only some specific features of the air bladder used in the Tech-Air® vest, was wholly annulled by the German Federal Patent Court on 15 May 2018. Dainese appealed this decision.
The third, EP 2 412 257 B1, concerning the general installation of an inflatable air bladder construction within a ‘pocket’ of a garment, featuring elastic panels, is the point on which the patent infringement claim was upheld last week. As soon as the Court serves the written judgment, Alpinestars will study the details prior to taking any decision on its next steps.
Alpinestars needs to point out that it has an appeal pending on the validity of this patent (EP 2 412 257 B1) within the German Federal Court of Justice.
As consistently stated throughout this legal process, Alpinestars fully respects and honors third parties’ intellectual property rights and expects the same with respect to its own IP rights. Alpinestars’ highly innovative Tech-Air® products are based upon years of its in house research and development conducted by its own team of leading research and development staff.
Since the very beginning of the Tech-Air® project, which commenced in 2001, the freedom to ride with the most advanced innovations of performance protection has been the objective relentlessly pursued by Alpinestars and the result is uniquely advanced and capable technology. Tech-Air® is the world’s first airbag providing full upper torso protection in a transferable vest which incorporates a completely independent electronic management system, with no reliance on any external devices (sensors or GPS), to give accident detection and full airbag inflation before the first impact, dual charge for the track and off-road capability as demonstrated in the 2019 Dakar Rally.
Alpinestars’ Tech-Air® products represent an enormously innovative contribution to increased rider safety in motorcycling.
The Munich Court of Appeal ruled in favour of Dainese in their airbag patent infringement suit against Alpinestars (A-stars).
The case had been going on since 2015. A German court found Alpinestars had infringed on the patent previously in 2017. A-Stars brought the case to the Munich Court of Appeals and they lost again. Their next and last course of action is to refer the case to the German Federal Supreme Court.
Dainese sued A-stars in 2015 after finding the latter had copied an essential part of the D-air vest. The part was then used in A-stars’ Tech-Air airbag vests, without payment to Dainese for licensing.
A-stars could well be in deep trouble, pending the German Supreme Court appeal. Dainese did not only file litigations in Germany. They also sued A-stars in Italy, the United Kingdom and France. The litigation floodgates could swing open in those countries should they lose in the German Supreme Court.
The confusion started in 2015 when Dainese released the D-air technology as an open platform as a responsibility to rider safety. This meant that other riding gear manufacturers can use the technology in their own products. But that did not mean they shouldn’t pay Dainese to use the patented technology. Unfortunately, this was what A-stars did.
So, what happens now? If A-stars loses their last appeal, German riders may not be able to keep their Tech Air vests. There’s no word of the case in other countries, so far but we’ll keep you posted as soon as we hear of something.
The folks over at Dainese have launched their latest retro Speed Leather range called the Dainese Settantadue or Dainese 72. They’ve basically gone back to the golden age of Dainese riding wear for racing and unveiled a contemporary version for the modern day and age. (more…)
A very interesting update has just been confirmed by the folks over at MotoGP where beginning of the 2018 season, all riders must wear a racing suit equipped with airbag systems. The rule applies to each and every rider across all three categories (MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3) except for wildcard riders. (more…)
As we head into the future, there are many folks out there whose trying their level best to embrace the inevitable and develop things that are truly extraordinary in many aspects of our lives. From the way we eat to how we travel, the future is all about improving our quality of living. (more…)
The Dainese Group has received three awards at the Red Dot Design Awards in the esteemed Product Design 2017 category. The Awards panel gave its seal of approval to the new Dainese Mugello R D-air® race suit, the AGV Pista GP R helmet and the latest generation Pro-Armor protective products, the three items were selected from 5,500 products, submitted from 54 countries.
[button color=”” size=”” type=”round” target=”blank” link=”https://www.bikesrepublic.com/news/bulletin/new-agv-dainese-gears-debut-misano/”]CLICK HERE[/button] to know more about the Misano D-air® race suit and the AGV Pista GP R helmet.
Dainese was also honoured with another international award at the Le Fonti Awards for Innovation and Human Resources, where the company was presented with the ‘Excellence of the Year / Innovation and Leadership’ award in the Hi-tech Protective Wear category. With a contribution of a community ranging over 40,000 business contacts, Dainese came up on top and bagged the Le Fonti Awards.
The Italian safety apparel manufacturer is responsible for the world’s first wireless airbag system known as the D-air® that protects world motorcycling figures like Valentino Rossi from MotoGP, Tom Sykes from WorldSBK and Guy Martin from the road racing division like the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy. Check out the history of Dainese’s D-air® technology below.
They have also endeavoured into space and beyond by providing space-aged protection apparel for astronaut Thomas Pesquet during his six-month mission at the International Space Station. No other racing apparel provider has even done or even attempted coming up with designs to be utilised outside the planet Earth.
[button color=”” size=”” type=”round” target=”blank” link=”https://www.bikesrepublic.com/news/bulletin/dainese-spacesuit-heading-space/”]CLICK HERE[/button] to know more about their suits used in space.
According to the CEO of the Dainese Group Cristiano Silei, he commented “The Dainese Group has always pursued its mission of advocating and delivery safety in dynamic sports, inspired by the potential of the human being, we study the protection needs of the human body in the most extreme conditions; riding a motorbike on track, downhill skiing, sailing and reaching zero gravity in space. These awards celebrate all the hard work and dedication of the staff put in embracing new challenges and we will continue to raise the bar of innovation.”
